West Liberty University Safety Committee

West Liberty University is committed to the safety and health of our students, employees and any visitor to our campus, and knows that a safety committee is the key to achieving safety success and improvement. We strive to provide for an effective safety committee that involves representatives from management, employees and students. This written Safety Committee Program is intended to provide the basic, agreed-upon ground rules from which all safety committee activity will follow. In this way, committee actions will be consistent, understood, and effective.

ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES

Anthony E. Salatino, our university’s Health and Safety Specialist, is responsible for developing and maintaining the written Safety Committee Program, based on input from the safety committee. The Safety Committee Program is kept at the following location: Myers Maintenance Building Room 104.

PURPOSE OF COMMITTEE

The purpose of our safety committee is to give management and employees a voice in safety issues or foster cooperative communication between management and employees to maintain a safe campus.

GOAL OF COMMITTEE

The goal of our safety committee is to reduce the incidence of or potential for injuries and illnesses at the college, to improve safety in the university environment, or to provide a means for communicating safety issues.

The current members have been designated by the Health and Safety Specialist. The minimum number of representatives on the committee is 4, and no more than 7. Term shall be for 1 year running from March to March. (Each member may have an alternate to attend the meeting in their place if he or she is unable to attend.) This committee will have a secretary at each meeting to take minutes and to distribute the minutes to all members during the upcoming month after the last meeting.

MEETINGS

To accomplish committee objectives, the safety committee will meet monthly. Each member will attend meetings or call upon their alternate to attend. Meeting participation is strongly encouraged.

Before the safety meeting of that month, the secretary will send out an email or post to the college’s webpage, the agenda and a contact name and number. Student and employee comments are always welcome.

Meetings will begin on time, follow the agenda, and generally include these items:

*Attendance
* Introductions
* Minutes of previous meetings
* Status report on any safety concerns under review
* Other old business
* Review accidents, incidents, or near misses since last meeting
* Review of inspection results from current month
* Review of any recent training (if done during past month)
* Review of any suggestions / concerns
* Other new business (SUGGESTED BY BOARD MEMBERS FOR NEXT MEETING)

All committee decisions are made by popular vote. Must have a minimum of 3 members of the committee present to have a topic voted on.

INCIDENT INVESTIGATION

No matter how conscientious the safety effort at a college, incidents happen occasionally due to all sorts of factors. Incidents can include injuries, illnesses, property damage or near misses. It is essential to do a thorough and proper incident investigation and follow-up.

The campus police department and at times, Health and Safety specialist will investigate all incidents as soon as possible while the facts are still fresh. The emphasis should be on fact finding, not fault finding.

The supervisor of the area involved should make an immediate report of incidents to Campus police. This report will then be forwarded to the Health and Safety Specialist, who will then bring this information to the next meeting, unless immediate actions or decisions are needed by the committee, then an emergency meeting will be called of each committee member.

INSPECTIONS

At least monthly, the Health and Safety Specialist will conduct workplace inspection of the campus, each building on campus, along with the physical structure of the campus both inside and out. At times, they will ask another committee member to assist them in their inspections. They then will document the date of the inspection, the location and the identity of the hazards or potential hazards, and any recommendations they may have for correcting those hazards. Some of the findings will be discussed at the next safety meeting.

REGULATORY MONITORING

As a safety committee member, it is vital to know about OSHA safety regulations and other safety issues that may affect the college. However, the committee itself is NOT obligated to monitor the safety issues; rather, the Health and Safety Specialist and at times Campus police are obligated to see the safety issues are addressed. The committee in turn, will work with the Health and Safety Specialist to provide input in finding the best ways to comply with those issues.

STUDENT/EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Our College encourages employees and students to report safety hazards and submit safety suggestions. All reports and suggestions are taken seriously. We use the following method of reporting safety hazards. Email the safety committee [email protected] There, the Health and Safety Specialist will get the report and take action on that topic as best and as soon as they can.

TRAINING

There are several topics and departments that require some sort of safety training. Majority of the training will be done by the Health and Safety Specialist along with that department’s supervisor. The topics needing training will be discussed and appointed by the supervisors of the departments, along with suggestions from the Safety Committee.

Records of the training performed and who all attended will be kept in the Health and Safety Specialist department.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

The Safety Committee reviews the written Safety Committee Program and the activities of the safety committee yearly, or at a time when immediate action is required. The review is intended to ensure that the ground rules meet with member approval and that the safety committee is functioning as intended.